Date: 26/02/2007
Source: Department of Education
Title: Surty: Seminar on challenges facing the transformation of higher education
Address by the Deputy Minister of Education, Mr Enver Surty, MP, at the seminar on the challenges facing the transformation of higher education, at the Centre for Conflict Resolution, University of Cape Town
Chairperson,
Deputy Vice Chancellor, Professor Thandabantu Nhlapo,
Professor Njabulo Ndebele, Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape Town,
Professor Brian O'Connell, Vice Chancellor of the University of the Western Cape,
Professor Vuyisa Tanga, Vice Chancellor of the Cape Peninsula University of Technology,
Professor Russell Botman, Vice Chancellor of Stellenbosch University,
The honourable Professor Shepard Mayathula, Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Education,
Honourable members of Parliament,
Executive Director of the Centre for Conflict Resolution, Professor Adekeye Adebayo,
Chairperson of the Board of the Centre for Conflict Resolution, Mr Leon Levy,
Staff and students of various higher education institutions,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Colleagues and friends,
Thank you for inviting me to this important seminar discussing the transformation of our education system.
Before I start, may I take this opportunity to congratulate Professor Botman on his recent appointment as Vice Chancellor of Stellenbosch University. Your appointment is yet another milestone in the transformation of our education system and we wish you strength and success as you lead the university into our second decade of freedom.
On an occasion such as this where one is requested to comment on a matter that has occupied the minds of so many for so long we should, perhaps, start from the beginning as a way of finding our way.
Chairperson, I presume that when you chose this topic you were conscious of the fact that this year will be 10 years of implementing Education White Paper 3: A Programme for the Transformation of the Higher Education System, promulgated in July 1997 and the Higher Education Act (Act 101 of 1997) promulgated in December 1997.
Prior to that, we had the report of the National Commission on Higher Education which reported in 1996. The brief of the commission in essence was to advise government on the future restructuring and transformation of the higher education system. Both the White Paper and the Higher Education Act used the report of the commission as their point of departure. Other seminal policy documents that followed were the report of the Council on Higher Education titled "Towards A New Higher Education Landscape: Meeting the equity, quality and social development imperatives of South Africa in the 21st century" and the National Plan for Higher Education issued in 2000 and 2001 respectively.
White Paper 3, which is the policy basis for the transformation of our higher educations system, has identified a number of principles which include the establishment of a single co-ordinated higher educations system, equity, access and quality, democratisation, effectiveness, efficiency and development and academic freedom and public accountability.
Professor Adebayo, I suspect a few among us might have forgotten that when former Minister Bhengu took office in 1994, he inherited 19 Departments of Education and a disparate Higher education system consisting of universities and technikons that were established on racial, language and ethnic lines. White Paper 3 therefore states that the higher education system must be planned, funded and governed as a single national co-ordinated system.
In terms of governance, all Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are now governed under the Higher Education Act and private Acts of different institutions have been repealed. Similarly, the statues of all institutions have been revised to conform to the Higher Education Act.
As a consequence of the promulgation of the Higher Education Act, the councils of HEIs and other governance structures have been democratised. As you are aware councils now comprise of academics, students, management and external persons who come together not as representative stakeholders but as individuals who are charged with the responsibility of governing the institution. Similarly, the Act legislated the establishment of student representative councils (SRCs) and those uniquely South African institutions, the institutional forums. We also developed our own model of governance which we call corporative governance.
During the last 10 years of implementing the Act, we continue to face a number of challenges particularly with the regard to a common understanding of "corporative governance." This has sometimes been interpreted as co-governance, thus leading to some councils assuming the role of management and some students assuming that they, management and councils, cannot take decisions without their consent.
The establishment of institutional forums, a representative body of stakeholders, was intended to advise the councils of institutions an all aspects of institutional policy and governance. There is a perception that many forums are not performing their designated function. In this regard the Department of Education will be reviewing the efficacy of these forums working closely with HEIs.
The Higher Education Act also established the Council on Higher Education (CHE) as an independent statutory advisory body, responsible for advising the Minister of Education on all aspects relating to the transformation and development of higher education in South Africa. The CHE is also responsible for accreditation, quality assurance and quality promotion through a permanent sub-committee of the CHE, the Higher Education Quality Committee (HEQC).
Chairperson, you would be aware of the range of advises and initiatives of the CHE and the HEQC since their establishment in June 1998. We now have a national system of quality assurance and promotion, which includes programme accreditation and institutional audits. The programme accreditation and in particular the national reviews have highlighted the uneven quality within our higher education system. Our challenge into the future is to institutionalise and deepen the quality management systems of all our institutions.
I am sure everyone in this room will support the statement made by the CHE in 2001, in making a case for higher education; that "higher education and in particular public higher education has immense potential to contribute to the consolidation of democracy and social justice, and the growth and development of the economy. The enhancement of democracy lays the basis for greater participation in economic and social life more generally. Higher levels of employment and work contribute to political and social stability and the capacity of citizen to exercise and enforce democratic rights and participate effectively in decision-making. The overall well-being of nations is vitally dependent on the contribution of higher education to the social, cultural, political and economic development of its citizens."
This is can only be realised if the education we provide is of high quality.
Another major policy intervention towards the establishment of a co-ordinated higher education system was the introduction of a (national and institutional) planning process linked to a new funding formula that would enable the higher education system to be steered to meet national development goals.
As previously stated, quality goes together with access and equity.
In terms of access, we have made tremendous strides in opening the doors of leaning. In 1994 there were approximately 495 000 students registered in higher education, compared to 734 000 in 2005. This figure is set to increase to over 800 000 by 2010, being close to our target of 20% participation rate for the age cohorts of 18 to 24 years. This access has also been supported by the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS), which is government's response to assisting needy but capable students to access higher education. Government's contribution has increased from R20 million in 94/5 to over R1,2 billion including repayments in 2006.
Similarly, the equity profile of the higher education system has changed markedly during the same period. In 1994, approximately 55% of the student population in higher education was black, compared to 75% in 2005. This is getting closer to the demographic representation of our population.
In numerical terms this means that during 1994, 271 000 students were black and in 2005 548 000 are black.
Within the category of black students, African student enrolment increased from 212 000 in 1994 to 447 000 students in 2005.
Our challenge is and continues to be ensuring that this success in access is matched by equity in outcomes. The recent cohort studies of the 2000 and 2001 first time entering students conducted by the Department of Education showed that too few of these students, approximately 22%, graduated after five years.
While the Department of Education is the first to acknowledge that the reasons for the low graduation rates are numerous and complex, it does not detract from the fact that access without a fair chance of success is not access at all. While some of these are still studying, particularly those enrolled at University of South Africa (UNISA), some have not been able to continue with their studies.
In response to these challenges, the Department has used funding of the system as a positive lever for change. The new funding framework introduced in 2004/05 included two separate mechanisms designed to improve the student output rates of institutions. The first is an earmarked allocation of funds for foundation programmes and the second a formula based procedure for allocating teaching development funds to institutions.
In addition, the Department is investing in teaching and learning infrastructure as well as re-capitalising a significant number of historically black institutions. Re-capitalisation has enabled these institutions to stabilise their finances and to begin addressing areas that have been neglected owing to financial constraints.
To date, recapitalisation payments and commitments totalling R625 million have been allocated to the University of Fort Hare (R100 million), University of the Western Cape (R170 million), the Durban University of Technology (R162 million) and University of Free State (R23 million), the Tshwane University of Technology (R87 million), the University of Zululand (R46 million) and the University of Venda (R27 million). The University of Limpopo, the Walter Sisulu University and Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University are also due for recapitalisation.
Similarly, a total of over R543 million has been invested in a number of institutions since 2002 to improve teaching and learning infrastructure as well as student residences. I believe the Minister will talk to this matter in her upcoming budget speech at the National Assembly:
* University of KwaZulu-Natal: R150 million for improving and relocating teaching and leaning facilities, primarily on the Westville campus
* University of Fort Hare: R30 million for deferred maintenance including student residences
* University of South Africa: R100 million for improving teaching and learning facilities through strengthening teaching and leaning centres
* University of Zululand: R25 million for improving teaching and learning facilities including deferred maintenance for student residences
* Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University: R1,5 million for improving teaching and learning facilities by upgrading the chemistry laboratories at the former Vista campus
* North West University: R47 million for improving teaching and learning facilities including deferred maintenance for student residences at the Vaal Triangle and Mafikeng campuses
* University of the Western Cape: R3,8 million for teaching and learning facilities in clinical health sciences
* Tshwane University of Technology, R36 million for deferred maintenance including student residences
* Cape Peninsula University: R18 million for harmonisation of teaching and learning facilities
* University of Venda: R132 million for improving teaching and learning facilities including deferred maintenance for student residences and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) facilities.
In 2005 the Department of Education and the National Treasury initiated a joint review of funding trends in the higher education sector in the context of national policy goals and objectives. The report has identified a number of critical issues, which include the improvement and modernisation of teaching, learning and research infrastructure, the student and staff ratios and rate of increase in student fees. The latter has a real potential to impact negatively on access and graduation. The Minister has indicated that it is her intention to respond in a sustainable manner to this problem.
I wish to take this opportunity of challenging our institutions to respond by continuously reviewing teaching practices and approaches. The students coming into higher education today are different from those of 20 years ago. It cannot be assumed that methods used then will still be appropriate today. We may also need to ask ourselves how well we are using the academic calendar. If we require more time to teach, should we not reduce the number of holidays?
Similarly, the culture of our institutions must be responsive to the changing profile of our students and society in general. This is important for all institutions and not just those that were established through mergers. In this regard, I am looking forward to the final report of the CHE on institutional autonomy and academic freedom and their upcoming consultative conference on the relationship between institutional culture and student success.
Chairperson, at a future time, I would also wish to talk to two other important aspects of transformation of higher education, namely, institutional diversity and knowledge generation. You would all be aware that one of the purposes of higher education as stated in the White Paper is to contribute to the creation, sharing and evaluation of knowledge. Higher education engages in the pursuit of academic scholarship and intellectual inquiry in all fields of human understanding, through research, learning and teaching. This role is critical for the continued health of the higher education system as HEIs are the only institutions that can produce the next generation of academics and scholars.
In closing, I hope you would agree that the challenges of transforming higher education are immense but not insurmountable. Despite the significant progress that we have made, a lot more still needs to be done in order to move closer towards realising the objectives that we have set for ourselves.
Indeed the transformation of higher education is not an event but a process that requires all of us to work in concert and ensure that that we keep the promise that higher education is contributing to the consolidation of democracy and social justice and the growth and development of our country.
I would like to once again, thank the Centre for Conflict Resolution for inviting me and particularly for raising such an important issue as the transformation of higher education.
Thank you!
Issued by: Department of Education
26 February 2007
Source: Department of Education
Title: Surty: Seminar on challenges facing the transformation of higher education
Address by the Deputy Minister of Education, Mr Enver Surty, MP, at the seminar on the challenges facing the transformation of higher education, at the Centre for Conflict Resolution, University of Cape Town
Chairperson,
Deputy Vice Chancellor, Professor Thandabantu Nhlapo,
Professor Njabulo Ndebele, Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape Town,
Professor Brian O'Connell, Vice Chancellor of the University of the Western Cape,
Professor Vuyisa Tanga, Vice Chancellor of the Cape Peninsula University of Technology,
Professor Russell Botman, Vice Chancellor of Stellenbosch University,
The honourable Professor Shepard Mayathula, Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Education,
Honourable members of Parliament,
Executive Director of the Centre for Conflict Resolution, Professor Adekeye Adebayo,
Chairperson of the Board of the Centre for Conflict Resolution, Mr Leon Levy,
Staff and students of various higher education institutions,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Colleagues and friends,
Thank you for inviting me to this important seminar discussing the transformation of our education system.
Before I start, may I take this opportunity to congratulate Professor Botman on his recent appointment as Vice Chancellor of Stellenbosch University. Your appointment is yet another milestone in the transformation of our education system and we wish you strength and success as you lead the university into our second decade of freedom.
On an occasion such as this where one is requested to comment on a matter that has occupied the minds of so many for so long we should, perhaps, start from the beginning as a way of finding our way.
Chairperson, I presume that when you chose this topic you were conscious of the fact that this year will be 10 years of implementing Education White Paper 3: A Programme for the Transformation of the Higher Education System, promulgated in July 1997 and the Higher Education Act (Act 101 of 1997) promulgated in December 1997.
Prior to that, we had the report of the National Commission on Higher Education which reported in 1996. The brief of the commission in essence was to advise government on the future restructuring and transformation of the higher education system. Both the White Paper and the Higher Education Act used the report of the commission as their point of departure. Other seminal policy documents that followed were the report of the Council on Higher Education titled "Towards A New Higher Education Landscape: Meeting the equity, quality and social development imperatives of South Africa in the 21st century" and the National Plan for Higher Education issued in 2000 and 2001 respectively.
White Paper 3, which is the policy basis for the transformation of our higher educations system, has identified a number of principles which include the establishment of a single co-ordinated higher educations system, equity, access and quality, democratisation, effectiveness, efficiency and development and academic freedom and public accountability.
Professor Adebayo, I suspect a few among us might have forgotten that when former Minister Bhengu took office in 1994, he inherited 19 Departments of Education and a disparate Higher education system consisting of universities and technikons that were established on racial, language and ethnic lines. White Paper 3 therefore states that the higher education system must be planned, funded and governed as a single national co-ordinated system.
In terms of governance, all Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are now governed under the Higher Education Act and private Acts of different institutions have been repealed. Similarly, the statues of all institutions have been revised to conform to the Higher Education Act.
As a consequence of the promulgation of the Higher Education Act, the councils of HEIs and other governance structures have been democratised. As you are aware councils now comprise of academics, students, management and external persons who come together not as representative stakeholders but as individuals who are charged with the responsibility of governing the institution. Similarly, the Act legislated the establishment of student representative councils (SRCs) and those uniquely South African institutions, the institutional forums. We also developed our own model of governance which we call corporative governance.
During the last 10 years of implementing the Act, we continue to face a number of challenges particularly with the regard to a common understanding of "corporative governance." This has sometimes been interpreted as co-governance, thus leading to some councils assuming the role of management and some students assuming that they, management and councils, cannot take decisions without their consent.
The establishment of institutional forums, a representative body of stakeholders, was intended to advise the councils of institutions an all aspects of institutional policy and governance. There is a perception that many forums are not performing their designated function. In this regard the Department of Education will be reviewing the efficacy of these forums working closely with HEIs.
The Higher Education Act also established the Council on Higher Education (CHE) as an independent statutory advisory body, responsible for advising the Minister of Education on all aspects relating to the transformation and development of higher education in South Africa. The CHE is also responsible for accreditation, quality assurance and quality promotion through a permanent sub-committee of the CHE, the Higher Education Quality Committee (HEQC).
Chairperson, you would be aware of the range of advises and initiatives of the CHE and the HEQC since their establishment in June 1998. We now have a national system of quality assurance and promotion, which includes programme accreditation and institutional audits. The programme accreditation and in particular the national reviews have highlighted the uneven quality within our higher education system. Our challenge into the future is to institutionalise and deepen the quality management systems of all our institutions.
I am sure everyone in this room will support the statement made by the CHE in 2001, in making a case for higher education; that "higher education and in particular public higher education has immense potential to contribute to the consolidation of democracy and social justice, and the growth and development of the economy. The enhancement of democracy lays the basis for greater participation in economic and social life more generally. Higher levels of employment and work contribute to political and social stability and the capacity of citizen to exercise and enforce democratic rights and participate effectively in decision-making. The overall well-being of nations is vitally dependent on the contribution of higher education to the social, cultural, political and economic development of its citizens."
This is can only be realised if the education we provide is of high quality.
Another major policy intervention towards the establishment of a co-ordinated higher education system was the introduction of a (national and institutional) planning process linked to a new funding formula that would enable the higher education system to be steered to meet national development goals.
As previously stated, quality goes together with access and equity.
In terms of access, we have made tremendous strides in opening the doors of leaning. In 1994 there were approximately 495 000 students registered in higher education, compared to 734 000 in 2005. This figure is set to increase to over 800 000 by 2010, being close to our target of 20% participation rate for the age cohorts of 18 to 24 years. This access has also been supported by the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS), which is government's response to assisting needy but capable students to access higher education. Government's contribution has increased from R20 million in 94/5 to over R1,2 billion including repayments in 2006.
Similarly, the equity profile of the higher education system has changed markedly during the same period. In 1994, approximately 55% of the student population in higher education was black, compared to 75% in 2005. This is getting closer to the demographic representation of our population.
In numerical terms this means that during 1994, 271 000 students were black and in 2005 548 000 are black.
Within the category of black students, African student enrolment increased from 212 000 in 1994 to 447 000 students in 2005.
Our challenge is and continues to be ensuring that this success in access is matched by equity in outcomes. The recent cohort studies of the 2000 and 2001 first time entering students conducted by the Department of Education showed that too few of these students, approximately 22%, graduated after five years.
While the Department of Education is the first to acknowledge that the reasons for the low graduation rates are numerous and complex, it does not detract from the fact that access without a fair chance of success is not access at all. While some of these are still studying, particularly those enrolled at University of South Africa (UNISA), some have not been able to continue with their studies.
In response to these challenges, the Department has used funding of the system as a positive lever for change. The new funding framework introduced in 2004/05 included two separate mechanisms designed to improve the student output rates of institutions. The first is an earmarked allocation of funds for foundation programmes and the second a formula based procedure for allocating teaching development funds to institutions.
In addition, the Department is investing in teaching and learning infrastructure as well as re-capitalising a significant number of historically black institutions. Re-capitalisation has enabled these institutions to stabilise their finances and to begin addressing areas that have been neglected owing to financial constraints.
To date, recapitalisation payments and commitments totalling R625 million have been allocated to the University of Fort Hare (R100 million), University of the Western Cape (R170 million), the Durban University of Technology (R162 million) and University of Free State (R23 million), the Tshwane University of Technology (R87 million), the University of Zululand (R46 million) and the University of Venda (R27 million). The University of Limpopo, the Walter Sisulu University and Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University are also due for recapitalisation.
Similarly, a total of over R543 million has been invested in a number of institutions since 2002 to improve teaching and learning infrastructure as well as student residences. I believe the Minister will talk to this matter in her upcoming budget speech at the National Assembly:
* University of KwaZulu-Natal: R150 million for improving and relocating teaching and leaning facilities, primarily on the Westville campus
* University of Fort Hare: R30 million for deferred maintenance including student residences
* University of South Africa: R100 million for improving teaching and learning facilities through strengthening teaching and leaning centres
* University of Zululand: R25 million for improving teaching and learning facilities including deferred maintenance for student residences
* Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University: R1,5 million for improving teaching and learning facilities by upgrading the chemistry laboratories at the former Vista campus
* North West University: R47 million for improving teaching and learning facilities including deferred maintenance for student residences at the Vaal Triangle and Mafikeng campuses
* University of the Western Cape: R3,8 million for teaching and learning facilities in clinical health sciences
* Tshwane University of Technology, R36 million for deferred maintenance including student residences
* Cape Peninsula University: R18 million for harmonisation of teaching and learning facilities
* University of Venda: R132 million for improving teaching and learning facilities including deferred maintenance for student residences and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) facilities.
In 2005 the Department of Education and the National Treasury initiated a joint review of funding trends in the higher education sector in the context of national policy goals and objectives. The report has identified a number of critical issues, which include the improvement and modernisation of teaching, learning and research infrastructure, the student and staff ratios and rate of increase in student fees. The latter has a real potential to impact negatively on access and graduation. The Minister has indicated that it is her intention to respond in a sustainable manner to this problem.
I wish to take this opportunity of challenging our institutions to respond by continuously reviewing teaching practices and approaches. The students coming into higher education today are different from those of 20 years ago. It cannot be assumed that methods used then will still be appropriate today. We may also need to ask ourselves how well we are using the academic calendar. If we require more time to teach, should we not reduce the number of holidays?
Similarly, the culture of our institutions must be responsive to the changing profile of our students and society in general. This is important for all institutions and not just those that were established through mergers. In this regard, I am looking forward to the final report of the CHE on institutional autonomy and academic freedom and their upcoming consultative conference on the relationship between institutional culture and student success.
Chairperson, at a future time, I would also wish to talk to two other important aspects of transformation of higher education, namely, institutional diversity and knowledge generation. You would all be aware that one of the purposes of higher education as stated in the White Paper is to contribute to the creation, sharing and evaluation of knowledge. Higher education engages in the pursuit of academic scholarship and intellectual inquiry in all fields of human understanding, through research, learning and teaching. This role is critical for the continued health of the higher education system as HEIs are the only institutions that can produce the next generation of academics and scholars.
In closing, I hope you would agree that the challenges of transforming higher education are immense but not insurmountable. Despite the significant progress that we have made, a lot more still needs to be done in order to move closer towards realising the objectives that we have set for ourselves.
Indeed the transformation of higher education is not an event but a process that requires all of us to work in concert and ensure that that we keep the promise that higher education is contributing to the consolidation of democracy and social justice and the growth and development of our country.
I would like to once again, thank the Centre for Conflict Resolution for inviting me and particularly for raising such an important issue as the transformation of higher education.
Thank you!
Issued by: Department of Education
26 February 2007
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